The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 14th, 1925. MORE UNREST.

Hokitika Guardian, 14 March 1925, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 14th, 1925. MORE UNREST.

hr seems impossible to separate laboring conditions from pciiods—frequent periods—of unrest. This despite the . fact of quiet times and a dearth of trading orders. Tho waterside ap- • pears to lie the location for niosl mirest, hut coal mining must he running it close. The watersiders complain about lmviug a grievance against the arbitration award, and to show their feelings adopt an irritating line of conduct not to hold up shipping altogether, hut to delay it, and enforce loss on the owners and community in that . manner as some way of getting ‘ev» n". The coal miners have a grievauje at the time of writing of a dilfere it character. Some of their mates, including members of the quondam executive have been going in for the co-opera-t tive system for the purpose of bettering themselves. This laudable step has irritated their comrades, and they resent the action and ask the Gov- ' ernnicut to repudiate the contra .-as with the co-operative parties. Repudiation is an ugly word, hut there are some elements in the labor world who would tear up a scrap of paper embodying tneir promise for the slightest provocation. Those of the class for instance, who are not submitting to the arbitration award, are in tho same category, for as members of a union they arc expected to observe the legal decision governing the union us between themselves and their employers. However, there it is, and it is a. mental condition which will not find approval with the public, who will expect- all contracts to he honored, whether written or verbal, man to man. There seems to he a vein of pernicious propaganda running through the labor world, and the apparently studied attempts to create a state of unrest is a matter for most serious consideration. The Government is inactive in the matter, and as far as can he seen, unconcerned. The only indication of the Government mind was the declaration of the Minister of Mines that he was not going to be a party to the repudiation of contracts. So far, no good. But having gone that length, it is to he hoped that the Minister will go further and assert the legal authority cf the position. Far too often now these difficult matters are glassed over without the position being properly cleared up. To allow this drift to go on is to invite a state of affairs to arise which leaves greater trouble for someone else to grapple with later. The situation is not local, of course. It is in Australia as elsewhere, and there arc ramifications which invest the position with the gravest issues, e At the same time, communities in New Zealand, Australia, and elsewhere are sitting down with a pistol at their heads, and it is a question whether the passivity is not permitting those with the pistol to forge an” over-lording instrument of a more deadly character. It is, perhaps, not for one government, or one people to tackle this expanding octopus. That makes the situation difficult, hut the position is growing moredangerous all the time and under Hi. 1 drift the end is inevitable. Sooner or later law and order will have to be established at any cost, but the policy of drift will permit the cost to become greater all the time. Countries have to face a plain issue, and that is, how long is tlie question of job control as practiced in clivers way to go on at the sweet will of recalcitrant labor. Authority through arbitration was promulgated, hut that authority is not enforced as it should he. Decisions of this nature should take legal and practical effect naturally and unless that is the ease putting the costly machinery of the law into force is a farce. Both sides must be made to respect the decision of the court, and the one which does not do so should he amenable to penalties which it is the duty of the community to see are : enforced, The continuous evidence of

labor unrest and the dislocation of trade and industry which follows, costs the country an enormous sum in the aggregate. It would be far cheaper for the people to rise up and say this shall not- be, and show in an unmistakable way that they are out to support those prepared to shoulder the burden of establishing industrial peace and enforcing it in a legitimate, way under which all sections will be protected, and none may have the advantage. That sounds like the approach of the millennium, but it i.s better to aim for that than drift in the direction the country i.s at present heading for.